Tuesday, December 18, 2012

ARTICLE: Grand Designs on Hold in Georgia. By Nino Gerzmava

Georgia’s new government has placed all of President
Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambitious infrastructure plans on hold. Thousands
of people have been put out of work while the administration reviews the
economic rationale for a range of projects including an all-new city.

Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s administration argues that many projects like building a city called Lazika are too far-fetched to go ahead.

Deputy Economy Minister Dmitri Kumsishvili says the government will still push ahead with plans to develop tourism and industry, although projects in these sectors also need to be looked at.

“Tourism is one of the main priorities for the Georgian government. The projects that are on hold will be re-examined with regard to cost and effectiveness,” he said. “Our first step will be to create a council of consultants to study the tourism sector and present recommendations.”

It was just a year ago that Saakashvili unveiled plans for Lazika, which he promised would be Georgia’s second city with a population of half a million, and the major gateway on the Black Sea. Apart from the residential homes, shops and official buildings that would be required, Lazika was to get a port larger than the existing ones at Poti and Batumi. (See Georgian Leader Unveils Grand City Plan.)

Three years earlier, Saakashvili launched resort projects at Anaklia and Ganmukhuri by the sea, and at Mestia in the Caucasus mountains.

Along a two-kilometre seafront at Anaklia, workers rapidly built a promenade, hotels, swimming pools, restaurants, a concert hotel, a yacht club and a 500-metre bridge over the mouth of the River Inguri. Mestia got a ski centre, hostels, a new bridge and 130 km of road for access.

The construction boom created a lot of new jobs – 3,000 in the Samegrelo–Zemo Svaneti region, according to provincial governor Alexander Kobalia.

“For years, we sat at home with nothing to do,” Anaklia resident Goga Gerantia recalled. “At least recently we’ve been able to breathe a little. Some people worked as builders, others opened shops, and some of my neighbours got jobs in hotels and restaurants.

“In Samegrelo, where no one had laid one brick on top of another for decades, they built a whole resort. People were hoping for a better future.”

President Saakashvili’s party lost a parliamentary election on October 1, leaving the government in the hands of billionaire Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition.

A constitutional reform is in train to make the prime minister and parliament more powerful than the president, and as a result Saakashvili is left unable to force through his pet projects.

A wave of unemployment has hit Samegrelo–Zemo Svaneti, where much of the work was focused.

“A few months ago, Anaklia, Ganmukhuri and Mestia were flourishing,” Levan Konjaria, chairman of the town council in Zugdidi, the centre of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, said. “Now there’s just a few cows wandering around. The building work has stopped. This region needs attention, or all that work will have been in vain.”

Visiting the region on December 4, Saakashvili expressed regret that the projects had been frozen. He put the number of people who had lost their jobs at 6,500 people.

“You can’t sacrifice work on which so many families depend just to spite one man,” he said. “Forget that it was Saakashvili’s idea, say the idea came from the prime minister or someone else, but just build.”

He stressed that Lazika was still a good idea. “Forty-five per cent of Georgia’s population lives in villages. We need a new urban centre that offers people job opportunities,” he said.

Most of the building companies under contract have declined to speak to the press, with some saying they are under investigation by state prosecutors.

Soso Keidia, one of the founders of the Sunny construction firm, said its director had been arrested.

“No one wants to say anything. Everyone is awaiting the next steps taken by the new government,” he said. “Over 1,000 Sunny workers on big building projects in the new resort zone have been thrown out into the street as work stop for an unknown period.”

Saakashvili alluded to the investigations during his visit, saying, “Even local government is feeling the pressure from prosecutors. It is being asked why it spent money on building Lazika.”

He insisted, “This money was spent because I ordered it. I did this, and whatever they say, I will finish the job.”

Even if Lazika is dead as a concept, the port facilities may yet see the light of day.

“Building a city is absurd, but as for a port, that’s more realistic,” Ivanishvili said. “But right now, I don’t have a precise project or a precise answer.”

David Narmania, the minister for regional development and infrastructure, said discussions on the port were still going on, even though work on it was suspended.

“Negotiations are taking place with investors about building a port,” he said.

FRONTLINE CLUB GEORGIA

Frontline Georgia is a media club that aims to serve as a politically-neutral venue for journalists, public officials, students, intellectuals come together in a dialogue over media, social, political and cultural issues important for Georgia and the region. Frontline Georgia holds panel discussions, screenings, exhibitions, conferences and master classes.

Frontline Georgia’s mission is to contribute to quality journalism and exchange of views. Its Events Program will bring together the key players and thinkers in politics and the media and give a member an opportunity not only to hear from experts but to ask questions and contribute to the discussion in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

While there are other meeting places for important public discussions, Frontline Georgia is among the very few, where people from different ideological and political camps meet together. This neutrality has been one of the biggest achievements of the club, which operates in Georgia’s highly politicized and polarized social and media environment.

Ruth Olshan in her film portrays musicians who work with different approaches: a male choir searching and cultivating old folk songs in the Caucasus region, a female choir, a school dance company and musicians who enhance Georgian folk music. There is a common denominator that links the diverse protagonists in Olshan’s film: Singing, dancing and music are crucial elements of their lifestyle. Music is as important as “air to breath,” explains the director of the female choir . The subtle camera work discreetly catches moments and spontaneous encounters, showing that the rehearsals and the singing brings moments to these women where they are taken away from their normal course of life. For life in Rustavi, a small town near Tiflis, seems bleak. The industry is dead, the unemployment rate is enormous. You ask yourself how people can live. The choir women’s beauty and positive energy exude an affirmative sign of life, even in mournful moments. Men and women sing and dance both joy and sorrow off their chest. In Georgia, music seems to be omnipresent, almost existential. Even if a young singer does not think folk music is “sexy”, he still gets hooked. It gets under his skin. The film pays tribute to this fascination, vitality, and spiritedness.

IMPRESSUM

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